Deputy fin min says conditions for Russian Eurobonds may improve

MOSCOW, Mar 27 (PRIME) -- Conditions for a Russian Eurobond offer may improve with time, Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak told reporters on Monday.

The Russian budget envisages placement of up to U.S. $7 billion Eurobonds in 2017. The Finance Ministry said it planned to offer $3 billion worth of new securities and to swap $4 billion worth of the securities in circulation for new issues.

Storchak said that so-called spring windows or autumn windows are just catchphrases, while a borrower judges the possibility of entering the debt market on the basis of a bid book it had formed before.

“Why people think that conditions right now are better than they will be some time later? Because the Federal Reserve System has recently revised its policy. The interest rate will grow slowly. But the latest revision had an interesting impact at least on the Russian indices and currencies. The impact was contrary to the expected effect,” he said.

On March 16, Finance Ministry Anton Siluanov said the U.S. Federal Reserve System’s key rate hike to 0.75–1% from 0.5–0.75% will have no impact on the ministry’s plans to offer Eurobonds this year.

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